Neural Implant podcast - the people behind Brain-Machine Interface revolutions

Nathan Copeland is a paraplegic neural implantee who has four Blackrock Utah electrode arrays implanted in his brain. He uses a robotic arm which has a wider functionality than a regular arm, and has even fist bumped the president with it. In this episode, he discusses his experiences being implanted and how using the implants has changed his life. Top three takeaways: When Nathan Copeland met Pre...

Dr. Alie Caldwell, a.k.a. Alie Astrocyte, is a neuroscientist who is well-known for her YouTube channel Neuro Transmissions . In this episode, she discusses the YouTube channel, how it was created, what types of videos the channel produces, how the videos are made, and what she has gained out of it. Top three takeaways: In doing this channel, Alie Caldwell has had to overcome the challenge of main...

We know you are facing challenging times in this current health crisis. The U.S. Small Business Administration is committed to help bring relief to small businesses and nonprofit organizations suffering because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.  On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the CARES Act, which provided additional assistance for small business owners and non-profits, in...

Daniel Powell is the CEO of Spark Biomedical , a medical device company based in Texas whose mission is to develop effective, wearable neurostimulation devices. In this episode, he discusses an auricular nerve stimulator to aid in the relief of opioid withdrawal both in adults and newborn infants. Top three takeaways: This auricular, transcutaneous nerve stimulator device works to alleviate opioid...

This outbreak of COVID-19 is a very difficult time for scientific research. A lot of experiments are being interrupted and put on pause, and conference travels are essentially not possible. In this episode, Ladan discusses what steps are being taken by government grant-funding agencies to assist researchers during this time. Top three takeaways: Grant-funding agencies such as the NIH and NSF are e...

Jeremy Magland and James Jun are researchers at the Flatiron Institute whose work involves spike sorting for analysis of large recorded neuronal data sets. In this episode, at the SfN 2019 Conference, they discuss the Flatiron Institute, spike sorting and the various algorithms involved in it, as well as an open-source algorithm the Flatiron Institute has developed for spike sorting and how it wor...

Dr. Pablo Celnik is a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Buzz is a spinal cord injury patient who has recently received implants to help him regain sensory and motor control of his body. In this episode, they discuss the project directed by Dr. Celnik that involves the implantation of a bilateral set of implants that has been effective...

Jennifer French and James Cavuoto are editors and publishers for Neurotech Reports , a news source whose mission is to provide up-to-date information about the field of neurotechnology that impacts research and venture capital. In this episode, they discuss some updates and recent events happening within the last month in the industry of neurotechnology. Top three takeaways: The 2020 North America...

Charles Lieber , a researcher in the field of chemistry and nanotechnology, has been arrested on charges of making false statements to the US government regarding his monetary ties to China. In this episode, JoJo Platt discusses his arrest, the events surrounding it, and what it could mean for the field and future international collaborations. Top three takeaways: Charles Lieber did not disclose h...

In this episode, Ladan interviews Ritesh Kumar, a poster presenter at the SfN 2019 conference whose research involves restoring bladder functions. Ritesh is a researcher working under Dr. Robert Gaunt in the Rehab Neural Engineering Labs at the University of Pittsburgh. Top three takeaways: The device being investigated and tested is designed to conform to changes in volume in the bladder. The ele...

Dr. Bryan McLaughlin is the president of Micro-Leads , a medical device company working on implantable therapy for spinal cord stimulation. In this episode, he discusses his research and investigation into medical-grade technologies to treat spinal cord injury, as well as his collaboration with DARPA in this endeavor. Top three takeaways: The electrodes manufactured by Micro-Leads used for spinal...

Brandon Prestwood, an amputee, is a participant in a research program which develops advanced prosthetics and implants to restore sensory function in amputees. In this episode, he discusses his experience as an amputee in this research program, as well as the implanted device he uses to restore the lost functionality of his forearm. Top three takeaways: Medical treatments for amputees can often in...

Dr. Tim Marzullo is an engineer and co-founder of Backyard Brains , which seeks to develop technologies to make learning about neurophysiology easy and fun. In this episode, he discusses some such technologies at SfN Neuroscience 2019 . Top three takeaways: Backyard Brains creates scientific technology that can be easily used by high school students to learn more about science (and win science fai...

Dr. Allan McCay is a legal scholar working in Australia, and his work involves legal and ethical issues in the field of neurolaw. In this episode, he discusses the legal and jurisprudential issues behind brain-computer interfaces and how their advent and proliferation could affect how crimes are viewed in legal system. Top three takeaways: Brain-computer interfaces may change the way we will need...

JoJo Platt is the founder of Behind the Bench , a Neurotech News outlet, as well as a Platt & Associates where she consulted for places like Feinstein Institute for Medical Research . In this episode, she discusses how she developed her network and formed Behind the Bench, as well as recruiting in the field of bioelectronic medicine and what it takes to get hired. Top three takeaways: Platt's miss...

This month's neurotech industry podcast features some highlights from the 2019 Neurotech Leaders Forum that took place November 4-5, 2019 In San Francisco. This is a two -day event focusing on the opportunities, trends and entrepreneur ventures in the industry. Here's what is featured: The Neurotech Reports roundtable was a lightning round session of topics with commentary and input from the edito...

Avery Bedows and Doug Clinton are part of Loup Ventures , a venture capital firm that invests in frontier technology. In this episode, which is the first of a quarterly series on neurotech news, they discuss recent events regarding investment in neurotech companies as well as growths and developments within the neurotech industry. Top three takeaways: Companies can sometimes look at the value of a...

Joe Bird is a lawyer specializing in patent litigation, and works for the firm Maynard Cooper & Gale. In this episode, he discusses the current lawsuit between Nevro and Boston Scientific for a high-frequency spinal cord stimulation device, he gives a general overview of patent law and how patents are enforced and litigated, and also discusses what this lawsuit means for the neurotech industry. To...

Top 3 takeaways Developments in the spinal cord stimulation market for pain  heat up with regulatory approval of 2 new devices for the treatment of chronic pain. Medtronic faces competition as Axonics enters the market with their sacral nerve stimulation device for fecal incontinence. Two major announcement for the treatment of paralysis due to SCI; one from DARPA and the other from European start...

This is the first episode of a new monthly series of the neurotech industry round-up. If you don't have time to scan the headlines every day, listen to this podcast to get a summary of the news over that last month. Joining Ladan is Jen French and Jim Cavuoto from Neurotech Reports to review what is drawing attention in the neurotechnology industry. Some of the headlines focused on regulatory appr...

Tom LeBlanc is the Marketing Manager at Bioness, a neuroprosthetics and neural rehabilitation technology company born out of the Alfred E. Mann Foundation. Let's listen in on his interview. He has several years of experience in marketing and communications within Bioness. Prior to joining them he was in the entertainment industry with the likes of Disney and Warner Bros. He holds an MBA from Peppe...

Narrative Salchow and Sayenko Dual interview episode: Christina Salchow-Hommen from Charité Universitätsmedizin in Berlin, Germany. Her presentation at RehabWeek2019 was titled "Characterization Of Optimal Electrode Configurations For Transcutaneous Spinal Cord Stimulation." The talk presented her findings from a small trial which included 5 participants living with spinal cord injuries. In the tr...

In this episode, Ladan recaps his experience at the Toronto rehabweek and discusses what he did and who he spoke with. Top three takeaways: Rehabweek brought together various fields such as engineering and rehabilitation science, as well as clinicians The aim of the event was to bring together different disciplines working toward the same goal and to find similar key points between them One can le...

Bimal Lakhani is the Vice President of Product Development at HealthTech Connex and NeuroCatch, a recent startup targeting the analytics of brain disorder diagnosis and improvements. He is also Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He holds a PhD in Rehabilitation Science. This conversation talks about the company, science behind it and where it is going i...

RehabWeek Exclusive interview the Kim Skinner Kim Skinner is the Director of Physical Therapy at Helius Medical Technologies where she is instrumental in the introduction of the PoNS rehabilitation program. Prior to this she was the Physical Therapy Director and Researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison working with sensory processing and neurological disorders. She holds a PhD in Physica...